whose are we?

i had a sweet sweet friend send me some encouragement this morning :)


"look at your life and see how you have filled its emptiness with people. as a result they have a stranglehold on you. see how they control your behavior by their disapproval. they hold the power to ease your loneliness with their company, to send your spirits soaring with their praise, to bring you down to the depths with their criticism and rejection. take a look at yourself spending almost every waking moment of your day placating and pleasing people, whether they are living or dead. you live by their norms, conform to their standards, seek their company, desire their love, dread their ridicule, long for their applause, meekly submit to the guilt they lay upon you; you are terrified to go against the fashion in the way that you dress or speak or act or even think. and observe how even when you control them you depend on them and are enslaved by them. people have become so much a part of your being that you cannot even imagine living a life that is unaffected or uncontrolled by them."

we have to remember that HE has already approved of us and we are accepted by Him because of what He has already done on the cross. His approval is all that we need. how much good is left undone because of our fear of the opinion of others? the strokes and scorn of our peers have become more important than the approval of Jesus.

we are HIS and our approval is in Him alone.

learning to be content, whatever the circumstances

"i am not saying this because i am in need, for i have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. i know what it is to be in need, and i know what it is to have plenty. i have learned the secret to being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." -philippians 4:11-13

listening to the apostle paul talk about how he is content in whatever his circumstances may be is absolutely amazing. paul's life was filled with anything but positive circumstances. he lived a very difficult life, filled with prison sentences, physical abuse, misunderstandings and abandonment by friends - yet he was still able to say that he was content. he learned contentment, and so can we.

as i've posted about before, one of the biggest things i struggle with is worry. it's not an unusual thing for humans to struggle with, but it is still a tool of the devil. Jesus commands us continually not to worry, and worry is the opposite of faith. when i worry and try to control my life, it's essentially me telling Him that i don't trust that His plan for my life is best. i'm reading right now about contentment and anxiety, and some of the thing i've read smacked me upside the head...

God doesn't need our help. my head obviously knows this, and i can try to convince my heart of it too. but can my heart actually settle in that fact? one of the things that i read recently that was an eye opener was this: "it's our 'helping God out' that leads to an anxious heart. when we try to take over and control what happens, we take our focus off the One who is in control and put our eyes on our circumstances." if i am constantly trying to manipulate my circumstances to what i think is best, i am going to be in a perpetual state of worry when things aren't working out in my time frame and in the way i think is best suitable.

how can i learn to be content with my circumstances? as a college student i am often looking forward to the next big thing, next opportunity, next opened door, or next "sign" that will lead me towards what i will ultimately be doing. everyone has circumstances that appear to be prison bars, but the Lord has been teaching me that the posture of my heart outweighs my circumstances. He wants me to be content in my circumstances right now - not when they improve. the book talks about how there are two parts to learning how to be content in our circumstances, our part and God's part.

philippians 4:6 says, "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." or another translation: "don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank him for his answers." we are commanded to have nothing to do with worry and pray about everything, but i am the worst about this. i worry about everything and try to pray about it as best i can. when faced with adverse circumstances, we all have a choice to either commit our worries to the Lord and pray about it, or worry about it.

then there is God's part. in the next verse paul writes, "and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." if we make the choice to pray instead of worry, we will personally experience God's peace. in a world full of anxiety, i want His peace.

finally, he writes in verse 8: "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things." i'm learning that my thoughts, NOT my circumstances, control whether or not i am content. i am to take every thought captive and dwell on the positive, not the negative. negative thoughts steal joy.

it is a daily learning process to continually give up what i want for what his plans are and will continue to be that way for a long time. but by choosing to give my anxieties to him, choosing to pray specifically and choosing to be thankful no matter what, it will lead me to a place of contentment rather than anxiety.

"contentment is essentially a matter of accepting from God's hand what He sends because we know that He is good and therefore it is good." -ji packer

rid me of myself, i belong to you

Jesus, let my desires be in line with Yours. keep my selfish ambitions away from my desires and show me daily which path to take. keep my mind and heart clear from confusion and fill it only with your peace, clarity and wisdom. i can make all the plans in the world but i know that if my plans don't fall in line with Yours, Yours are always going to be far superior, whether i know it at the time or not. :) i know Your timing is perfect, so please help me to not rush things so that they fit my time frame. You rarely run on my clock, but You are never late. please help me to remember that. even when You are seemingly silent, it's actually just You being patient (and teaching me patience as well.) i pray that i would draw close to You and in turn be able to clearly see Your guidance. lastly, help me not to follow my heart, but instead help me to learn to discern Your still small voice and allow that to lead me. i know that You will never leave me empty because You don't want to withhold good things from your children. if You are asking me to put something down, please help me to trust it's because you want me to move on to bigger and better things that will help me further my relationship with You and be further transformed into Your image. thank You Jesus! we love you

"i want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. and i don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. i want to eat cold tangerines and sing loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. i want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and i want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift." 

hi God, i can hear you now!

sometimes i feel like i can't hear God. i have recently come to the realization that He actually is trying to talk to me, i just wasn't making the necessary time in my busy schedule to be quiet before Him so that i could hear Him speak. it was a thought provoking concept. yes, i pray, read my jesus calling devotional and i try to read my bible every day... but i hadn't actually stopped to ponder the fact that God can and does speak to us in a variety of different ways. He WANTS to communicate with us.

God has a perfect plan for my life, and He wants to be involved in every single intimate detail of my life. His plan will lead me to a place of peace and contentment, but how am I to know what His plan for my life is if i'm not hearing from Him? i certainly don't want to believe that i am wise enough to run my own life. to acknowledge Him is to recognize His presence and power in my life, and care about His opinion instead of trying to do things my own way. through a lot of reading and thinking, i've learned a lot about how God speaks to us that i feel is worth sharing :)

Jesus always has something new to say about the situations we are facing. Jesus spent three years, day and night, with His disciples and he indicated to them that they still had more to learn. THANK THE LORD that i don't know all there is to know about Jesus and his goodness. as our Lord, He knows and understands our needs and we can trust Him to lead us to the right path every day.
more than that, i can EXPECT to hear Him. He wants to lead me step by step to the good things He has in store for me, and He cares about the desires of my heart. in psalm 139 it says "all of my days were ordained in your book before one of them came to be." if that is so and God knew all of my days before i was born, it's important for me to be able to hear from Him because it is not only exciting, but will keep me on the right track. furthermore, God will tell me the way to go, but then i have to do the walking. a walk with God takes place through one step of obedience at a time. we may not always know what exactly we're supposed to do, but every time we reach a fork in the road, God will guide us.

my biggest problem in college as it pertains to hearing from God is creating the right atmosphere to hear from Him. seeking Him with my whole heart is a full-time job. to enjoy the fullness of God's presence, i have to consistently maintain an atmosphere conducive to seeking Him, and that is hard work. if i truly want to hear from God, i have to check my attitudes at the door and learn to be led by the Spirit in all of my ways. having a listening attitude will keep me from becoming dull in my hearing. another thing i struggle with is knowing whether or not things i hear are God actually speaking to me or if the things i hear are just the things i want to hear. i've learned that if God is speaking directly to me, i will have a peace in my heart about whatever it is that i'm hearing. if i don't have peace about it, then it's probably not from God, because He knows my whole story and isn't going to lead me astray.

as a christian, i have to maintain an attitude of faith in what God tells me, even when no one else believes it with me. when i hear from God, i don't need to wait for three more people to tell me the exact same thing - i just need to have an attitude of faith and wait for God to show me the next step. God may call me to do something that i'm not used to doing, but an attitude of faith will keep me moving toward the fulfillment of my calling. as far as wisdom goes, in order to hear God, i have to be willing to wait on wisdom out of a desire for God's will to be done in my life more than anything else. i've started to figure out that i'm going to hear from God more clearly if i'm not rushing to make the next move in the heat of my emotions or fleshly desires. i have to wait for sound wisdom before i act on an impulse that i think is from God.

God speaks to me every day in different ways, but i think that one of the most interesting ways that God speaks to people is through prophecy. sometimes the Lord will reveal His will for our lives in this way. prophecy inspired by God will encourage, strengthen and comfort the one who receives it (1st corinthians 14:3). a personal word of prophecy should confirm something that was already in my heart, which is nice because i know that the person prophesying to me didn't know what God was already telling me. if a prophetic word is actually from the Lord, he will make it happen in His own time. even when i have clear direction from the Lord, i am going to wait it out in order to let him fulfill his promises in my life without manipulating their manifestation.

something that completely blew my mind while reading was that if a believer spoke a prophetic word over me, opposition is one of the greatest signs that the word was from God. when i first saw that, i started questioning it, thinking to myself that if i encountered opposition it would make me think twice about the decision i was about to make. then i was reminded that the devil wants to make sure that the Lord's will is not manifested in my life and will place obstacles in our way to make us doubt what God has told us. prophecy is meant to encourage us with God's promise to us while we wait for Him to work it out in our lives.

it's been a season of learning, pondering and prayer. i can't believe i'm almost done with my first semester of college. God is teaching me more than i ever expected to learn, and i'm excited to see what else he reveals to me in the next three and a half years and the adventures and experiences he places before me!

i was created for community.

one of the biggest obstacles i've encountered since coming to college is finding a group of people that can daily encourage me with my walk with the Lord. i've been blessed enough to find a group of girls that are so so wonderful and i love them to death. however, it's a huge adjustment getting used to the fact that i'm not gonna be surrounded by the same amazing 56 people that i graduated high school with for college as well.

what is biblical community, and why is it so important?

genesis 2:18 says that "it is not good for man to be alone". even though man was walking with God in the garden without sin, this relationship was still not ideal. in the Gospels we see that Jesus' final words before the cross were a prayer for unity among His people (John 17:21-22). it's evident that the concept of community isn't a completely strange idea, but rather essential to the "outworking of God's purpose in the world" (matt chandler). God is glorified when he's properly reflected, and by living in unity with other believers, we rightly image Him.

i believe community is so important because without a solid group of christians around you, you will eventually end up feeling empty. a person can only pour into others in a limited capacity if he or she is not being encouraged and challenged in his walk in return. community is so important in order for people to grow, myself included. you grow closer to the Lord through community; through "doing life" with other believers. Jesus and his disciples did everything together: eating, living, serving. i want a group like that.

witness is another big thing for me. i've learned recently that if you are living differently than other people, it shows. i've always heard that phrase. "don't feel like you have to do what everyone else is doing. people will notice and wonder what makes you so different." growing up in a christian bubble, i never had the opportunity to be that "different" person... until now.  people notice when you're living your life differently and not conforming to social norms. how much better would that witness be if you were in a community of people who were doing the same thing? Godly community is the best way for people to come to understand and know the gospel. (john 17:23).

so that's what i'm doing. i have amazing people in my life, whether they be here or away, and i am excited to see who else the Lord brings into my life in the future - more people that i can "do life" with and share the gospel with through our words, actions and community :)

"and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." -hebrews 10:24-25

"two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!" -ecclesiastes 4:9-10

"for where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them." -matthew 18:20

have faith.

the same word has been recurring a lot in different aspects of my life lately. FAITH. sometimes it just pops into my head or i read it in my Bible, or sometimes someone mentions something about having faith, but it has caught my attention and has caused me to think a lot.

hebrews 11:1 (message) - "the fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. it's our handle on what we can't see."
2 corinthians 5:7 - "we live by faith, not by sight."
2 timothy 2:13 - "if we are faithless, he is still faithful, for he cannot disown himself."

it struck me recently that whenever we have an area of life in which we are not living in joyous expectation of good, it gives the chance for the devil to seize a foothold in our lives. why would i want that?? it is so easy for me to become fearful, especially of the future. i frequently have to stop and remind myself that the Lord is in control and He has already determined each and every one of my steps. His plan for my life is PERFECT and far exceeds any of my wildest dreams or expectations.

the fact of the matter is that faith is the opposite of fear.  the command repeated most often in the Bible is "do not fear." when i fear, it overtakes the foundation of my relationship with Christ - my faith. fear is essentially faith in devil; the doubt that God is as powerful and sovereign as He says He is. faithlessness is the same as fearfulness. my fear and my faith cannot coexist; they work against each other. who am i to doubt the power of God? He is on His throne and is taking care of every single intimate detail of my life. when i pray, everything is possible if i believe that He WILL do it. i so often find myself saying, "i have no doubt that God can answer this prayer." well of course he can, haley.... even the devil knows that God can answer prayer. true faith would be declaring His promises over my life in full expectation of Him answering my prayers. and that is my goal.

"for the one who has faith, nothing is impossible. there are NO impossibilities where there is faith, and there are no exceptions to that." -bill johnson